Welcome to National Centre for Australian Studies

Located just minutes away from the heart of Melbourne and with a strong presence in regional and remote Australia, the National Centre for Australian Studies engages the world through teaching, community outreach and research. The Centre was established over twenty years ago as a special initiative of the Australian government and it remains the most dynamic, innovative and fastest growing centre of its kind.

Australian Studies is part of a global conversation and seeks to locate Australia in the region and the world. We celebrate the strength and diversity of Indigenous Australia and we explore the myriad cultures that inform a sense of Australian identity today. Our undergraduate program offers a gateway to Australia, visiting sites of significance right across the country and exploring the ideas and landmarks that have helped shape Australians’ sense of themselves. We also offer a range of very successful postgraduate programs that focuses on Australia as part of the world.

Professor Jenny Hocking, NCAS Research Professor and Australian Research Council DORA Fellow has been appointed the inaugural Distinguished Fellow at the Whitlam Institute at the University of Western Sydney. Professor Hocking’s appointment, which marks the establishment of the Whitlam Institute’s Fellows Program, was recently announced by the University of Western Sydney:
The Whitlam Institute within the University of Western Sydney Read more

Dr Agnieszka Sobocinska’s latest book, Visiting the Neighbours: Australians in Asia was launched on 15 October 2014 at Readings, Carlton. The book examines the history of Australian travel to Asia from World War II to the present day, showing that travel experiences helped shape both public opinion and diplomacy towards the region.
‘ … Puts travel to Asia firmly on Read more

Controversial figure N. Srinivasan is this week expected to be anointed as the new head of world cricket, despite a series of allegations against him. Dr Tom Heenan, lecturer in Sports and Australian Studies, looks at the man, the corruption allegations and the issues surrounding the appointment.
http://thenewdaily.com.au/sport/2014/06/23/indian-money-hijacking-cricket/
Read more

Dr Jeff Jarvis and Dr Vicki Peel from the Graduate Tourism Program at NCAS are currently managing an ongoing study funded by Tourism Victoria entitled “Long Term Tourists – Short Term Migrants” focusing on the high yield Working Holiday Visa Makers (WHMs) sub segment of inbound youth tourism. So far the study has looked at Read more

Professor Jenny Hocking will speak at the National Archives of Australia in Canberra at their regular ‘Speakers’ Corner’ event on Sunday 16 February about her latest book, the second volume in her two-volume biography of the former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, Gough Whitlam: His Time.
Hidden history of the Whitlam government’s dismissal: unmasking the ‘third man’
Award-winning political Read more

The China-Australia Research Network (CARN), at the National Centre for Australian Studies, is holding a Symposium to mark forty years since Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam visited China and the recent expansion of Australian Studies in that country. Download the flyer: CARN Symposium 16.10.2013 Flyer
Featuring 3 Chinese scholars visiting Monash as CARN Fellows and Monash academics collaborating with Read more

Gough Whitlam: His Time (MUP 2012), the second volume of Professor Jenny Hocking’s two-volume biography of the former Labor Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam, has been shortlisted for the 2013 Queensland Literary Awards, one of 5 books shortlisted for the University of Queensland Non-Fiction Award.
Details of the short-lists and the judges comments can be found at:
http://www.queenslandliteraryawards.com/2013-shortlists.html
“This definitive biography Read more

Gough Whitlam: His Time (MUP 2012), the much-anticipated second volume of Professor Jenny Hocking’s two-volume biography of the former Labor Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam, has been long-listed for ‘The Nib': Waverley Award for Literature 2013. The Award is presented for excellence in research in the creation of a literary work. Other factors considered by the judges include Read more

Associate Professor and ARC Future Fellow Nathalie Nguyen was interviewed by Kim Williams from Radio 2SER Monday Daily on the topic of asylum seekers and the Vietnamese refugee movement. The program was broadcast on Monday 12 August 2013.
“With the question of what to do about the influx of boat people arriving from Asian shores still Read more

NCAS is delighted to announce the establishment of the China-Australia Research Network (CARN). The establishment of CARN and Fellowship program is funded by the Australia-China Council (part of the Australian Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade), with the support of the Australian Museum of Chinese-Australian History. The chief goal of the China-Australia Research Network Read more

The Dean, on behalf of the Faculty of Arts, congratulates Professor Jenny Hocking on the shortlisting of her biography Gough Whitlam: His Time (MUP/Miegunyah Press 2012) for the 2013 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards, Australian History Prize .
This is a tribute to the high standard of scholarship, ground-breaking research and hard work that Professor Hocking has invested in Read more

Associate Professor and ARC Future Fellow Nathalie Nguyen took part in a GOMA Talks APT7 panel on “Events that shape the world” at the Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane on 7 March 2013. Other panelists included Paula Abood, Beck Cole and Parastou Forouhar. The panel provided perspectives on cultural memory, history and place in Read more

Calls for Australia to become ‘Asia-literate’ are not new — they are as Australian as Vegemite, only older. Indeed, claims from politicians and authors that we are in new territory with the rise of Asia have been a feature of Australian public life for 150 years. In this original, compelling and often surprising account of Read more

Richard White is a graduate of the University of Sydney and has taught Australian history and the history of travel and tourism there since 1989.
He taught in the History Department at Monash University from 1975 to 1979. His publications include Inventing Australia, The Oxford Book of Australian Travel Writing, Cultural History in Australia, On Holidays: Read more

Volumes have been written on the American, Australian and North Vietnamese soldiers who were involved in the Vietnam War. But the veterans from the South Vietnamese army, the losing side in the controversial conflict, have slipped from sight.
Monash University historian Associate Professor Nathalie Nguyen is helping to fill this gap in the record through the collection and study Read more

ARC Future Fellow Nathalie Nguyen on Vietnamese Veterans in Australia
Vietnamese veterans marching on Anzac Day in Melbourne, 25 April 2011.
Photograph: Keith Broad
Associate Professor Nathalie Nguyen’s new ARC Future Fellowship (2011-15) is on the topic of “Forgotten Histories: Vietnamese Veterans in Australia”. She will give a Public Lecture on “Memories of War: The Stories of Read more